Log of the Elite
by JayOfEarth-3
Summary: An Elite-rank explorer of the Federation happens upon the Lylat System and discovers there's more than human life sharing the same galaxy.


The edge of the Milky Way has seen the expansion of the human race over the past millennium. The three factions-the Federation, Alliance, and Empire-have all gotten along somewhat well. Sure, there've been some frequent fights, but besides that, the human race was doing fine with its interstellar control. However, compared to the rest of the Milky Way, they've only colonized a small portion of the galaxy. That's where explorers come in; they travel into the farthest reaches of the Milky Way to discover new potential worlds to colonize and to discover anything new and interesting from black holes to quasars.

"Commander Brendon Carson, Exploration log, day 9," the commander known as Brendon Carson spoke into the microphone of his Asp Explorer. He was a rather skinny man with brown hair and green eyes, wearing the usual pilot's suit that every commander wears. On the left side of his chest was the Elite symbol for exploration, showing that he has mastered the art of exploration. "I've finally made it! After 9 long days of traveling from colonized space and constant fuel scooping and jumping from system to system, I've officially reached the center of the Milky Way! This is truly an exciting moment for me! I don't think there's any chance of anyone interdicting me like when I was traveling here. I will continue to explore nearby star systems and return to colonized space after gathering enough data." Brendon ended his log there. He leaned back in his chair and gazed at the bright cluster of stars that was the galactic core. It was beautiful. In fact, it was almost too bright to look at. Brendon turned to his right and looked at his pilot summary, showing how many credits he accumulated, the rebuy cost of his ship, but what he appreciated the most on the screen was the same Elite status for exploration that he also wore on his chest. Sure, he could've been a trader trading valuable goods like platinum or gold and selling them for profit, or he could've been a bounty hunter and claimed as many bounties from pirates as he wanted, but he was always fascinated by exploring the unknown, and space was ripe territory for exploration. Once he gathered enough money from small jobs, he was finally able to afford the ever-so-expensive Asp Explorer, the perfect ship for true explorers. He outfitted it with one of the best discovery and planetary scanners, a decent sized fuel tank, and one of the best frame shift drives in the colonies for the furthest jumps. Another thing he liked about exploration was being alone. He never really liked being around people, whether they were in stations or planet side, so the vast emptiness of space was the perfect outing. He decided to jump to the next star system, so he turned to his left to open up the display for what systems are nearby. There were the usual complex names for star systems, but one stood out in particular: it simply said "unknown". "Huh...that's odd..." Brendon muttered as he tried to check the system's map, but it just gave him an error message when he tried to open the system's data. This has never happened to him before. "Maybe this system just went unregistered and they forgot to register it..." Brendon rubbed his chin. Then things got even weirder: his subspace transmitter and receiver started to pick up a signal, but there was nothing on the radar, so it couldn't have been a local ship. Brendon began to adjust some settings on the receiver to better hear the signal. Then, he hear a voice clear as day.

"...yday, mayday, this is Bill Grey of the Katina Defense Force...transmitting on all subspace frequencies...crash landed on Titania...activating rescue beacon now..." The entire transmission kept shifting between static and a clear voice. Brendon activated the transmitter and tried speaking on the same frequency.

"Hello? Hello? This is Brendon Carson of the Federation. Do you read?" Nothing. This was starting to freak Brendon out. There was no way any other pilot could've been all the way out here at the center of the galaxy, so who was this "Bill Grey"? What was Katina and Titania? "Could it be...it couldn't...but everyone's been talking about it ever since we've started expanding our domain...could it really be...intelligent life that's not human?" Brendon sat quietly in his chair as these questions boggled his mind. The thing that snapped Brendon out of his trance was that the rescue beacon's signal was being picked up by his Asp's computer, and it was originating from the unknown system. "Frame shift drive charging..." His computer droned. "4...3...2...1...engage," the Asp Explorer shot into hyperspace. Brendon gripped his armrest in both excitement and anxiety. What kind of system laid at the end of the warp? After about 7 more seconds, the Asp stopped its warp at a red star that was about the size of Sol back in human space. Now that he was in the system, he could get a general scan of the whole system. Brendon opened the same window from before and tried to open the system's info. This time, a window popped up and showed the whole system. This system was apparently a binary system with the red star being the smallest and a nearby blue star being the largest. The system info also showed that there were about 12 planets and 3 nebulae. What caught Brendon's attention wasn't the fact that there was an unusual abundance of planets all the way out this far from human space, but it was the fact that the fourth planet orbiting the red star was earth-like. The scans were saying that there was water and land on the planet. Brendon stared at the screen in shock-the chances of finding an earth-like planet this far from colonized space was incredibly slim, and there it was: an earth-like planet that potentially supported life. Brendon was about to log his findings when his computer reminded him about the distress beacon. "Oh, right." Brendon murmured as he aimed his Asp in the direction of the beacon which appeared to be on one of the system's planets. He throttled up towards the planet and began to scan the planet using his planetary scanner as he got closer. With the planetary scanner, he could get more detailed information on a planet like material composition, and in this case, basic information like the orbital period. He got the detailed scan and in less than 5 minutes, Brendon could see the planet. It was a blistering-red desert planet that almost seemed devoid of life. Now, he had throttled down and was now hovering silently above the desert planet. He reached for the sunspace transmitter and began talking on the same frequency as before.

"This is Brendon Carson, Elite-rank explorer of the Federation. I've received your distress signal. Do you read?" Brendon sat back, waiting for a response. Miraculously, the same voice replied back, this time with less static.

"Oh, thank goodness! Someone found my beacon! I was testing a prototype warp engine that was to be put into all of my fleet's ships, but it malfunctioned and I crashed here on Titania." The male on the other side of the receiver explained.

"Your fleet? What faction are you in? The Federation, Alliance, or Empire?" Brendon asked. The voice was silent for a few seconds.

"What...faction? Umm...I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm Cornerian if that helps somewhat." The voice replied back. There was something odd going on. All his time traveling through colonized space, he had never once heard the word "Cornerian". The more he thought about it, the more he truly thought he might be in a system inhabited by intelligent non-human life. The transmitter remained silent for another few seconds until Brendon spoke up.

"Hang on, I'm about to enter the atmosphere. I'll follow the beacon and rescue you. Over and out." The transmitter clicked off as Brendon adjusted the nose of his Asp towards the bright-red planet and began his descent. The nose of his Asp began to heat up and eventually catch fire as he penetrated the atmosphere. Soon, he could see sandy crimson hills and occasional desert flora. Brendon's eyes caught sight of something shiny as the flames died down: something shiny. As he got closer, it looked like a craft. The engine was burnt and a wing was clipped off.

"That must be it." Brendon thought as he maneuvered towards the craft. He deployed his landing gear, which lowered his speed considerably for landing. He finally got a much closer look as he slowed down near the craft. It looked nothing like a Lakon Spaceways nor Core Dynamics nor any manufacturer's ship he's ever seen. The landing assist screen popped up as Brendon lowered his Asp right next to the crashed vessel.

"Landing successful. Engines disengaged." His computer announced as his engines slowly shut off and eventually went silent. Brendon turned to see the ship and could see the silhouette of the pilot inside the cockpit, obviously waiting for his rescue. Brendon flipped a switch that opened the back hatch for him to exit. He unbuckled his seat straps and walked towards the back. He opened the door that separated the cockpit and the back hatch. He was immediately assaulted by the blinding desert sun and searing heat. Brendon shielded his eyes as they adjusted to the light. Brendon then stepped down the back ladder attached to the hatch and jumped onto the ground. He could feel the intense heat absorbed by the sand begin to transfer into his feet and into his body, causing him to start sweating immediately. As he began to walk over to the crashed ship, the cockpit suddenly lifted open and the pilot jumped out and landed on the ground without a hitch. What would come would make Brendon more shocked than coming across a black hole or encountering a neutron star. The pilot stood up and looked at Brendon.

This pilot wasn't human.

He looked like a dog-a bipedal dog with light-brown fur. He wore a helmet with a semi-tinted visor. He also wore some kind of flight suit and boots. When the pilot realized who his rescuer looked like, they both found themselves staring at each other in silent shock.

"What are you?!" They both exclaimed in unison.


End file.
